


The Look

by navaan



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Feelings Realization, Inspired by Fanart, M/M, Male-Female Friendship, Mutual Pining, Natasha Romanov Is a Good Bro, POV Female Character, POV Outsider, Slight Canon Divergence - Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie), Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanov Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-18
Updated: 2018-03-18
Packaged: 2019-04-04 02:07:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14009847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/navaan/pseuds/navaan
Summary: Sometimes it's painfully obvious to anyone but the people involved what's going on. Steve needs a little push tosee.





	The Look

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MusicalLuna](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MusicalLuna/gifts).



> Written for musicalluna for [this GORGEOUS piece of fanart](http://musicalluna-draws.tumblr.com/post/165672809917/pining-a-belated-birthday-present-for) for the cap-ironman anniversary [mini-fic/art exchange](https://cap-ironman.dreamwidth.org/1866602.html).
> 
> Thanks pazithi for looking it over!

Natasha had been trained all her life to see what was going on around her, to see the relationships and complications, to see people for what they were, to see the secrets and weaknesses that were easily exploited. She'd been taught to see, exploit and not let any of it touch her ever. 

But the Natasha who'd been untouchable was long gone. She still saw; she still calculated and she still used what she knew to her advantage. But she was no longer alone – and that changed things.

Black Widow was a SHIELD agent now and she made SHIELD agent lives her business. Black Widow was an Avenger now and she made her team's lives her business.

Against all odds Natasha Romanoff, the orphan turned assassin, had found a home and family. But her little found family as made up of differences.Yet, it wasn't a big surprise that despite the trust they'd forged during the battle of New York some friction was involved in suddenly living together at Stark Tower and Natasha settled in to quietly watch from the sidelines as everyone figured out their place in the Avengers.

Stark – _Tony_ – had surprised her by opening his home so easily to them after New York. She knew the man loved his secrets, loved the spaces he could hide in. He had shown her that despite his flashy public persona he was someone who needed the quiet of the workshop where he could work alone on solving his own problems. 

She expected Steve to have the least trouble living with the team, because he had come from a life with soldiers into a life lived on a SHIELD base and finally to this. It must suit him better than a lonely and empty apartment in Washington D.C.

But both Steve and Tony had a way of defying expectations in both the good and the bad sense. So in the end she was only mildly surprised to find that Tony walked around Banner with excitement, made sure Natasha had the tea she liked stacked in the kitchen cupboard without her ever voicing her preference and provided Clint with all the technologically advanced arrows he needed - while Steve kept to himself when he could and focused on nothing but the mission. 

“They're like the opposite poles of the same thing,” Clint remarked half-amused when he and Natasha watched Steve get the team organized for their next Hydra hunt and Tony joked with a nervous Banner until the man settled into the Quinjet without protest. “Mum and dad.”

“As you're the expert on families here, I'll take your word for it.”

There was something strange and unexpected going on here, but whatever it was, and however much friction it seemed to cause, it seemed to work quite well.

The next day she was surprised to find Steve and Tony sitting in the living room area talking animatedly over plans Tony had drawn up. It was the first time since they'd broken up SHIELD that Steve's face was anything but closed off around someone who wasn't Sam. 

“You can build that?” Steve asked and his eyes twinkled.

Tony shrugged. “Not that hard.”

“For someone like you.”

The laughter Tony answered with was good-natured and friendly. “For me, yeah.”

“Mum and dad,” she muttered to herself, thinking of Clint's words, but realizing there was a different quality to the thing Clint had tried to name. This was the first time she saw it: the way Steve smiled and the way Tony seemed to take notice.

Steve didn't see it, of course. He was focused on the matter at hand. And from what Natasha had seen of Steve and his recent life, she wasn't surprised. Where personal relationships were concerned, Steve Rogers had a lot of catching up to do.

“You're not telling him about our private mission?” Sam asked when he and Steve sat down with Natasha to talk about the leads on Barnes that Sam was following. 

“We're focusing on Hydra,” Steve said flatly and his face remained the calm, unsmiling mask Natasha had seen in his time at SHIELD. He was Captain America. He was a leader. He focused on what was important. “Tony's doing enough for all of us, let's not worry him with this. This is our mission. Let's keep it between ourselves.”

You didn't need to be a spy to see that Steve wasn't telling the whole truth. But with the clear blue gaze and the straight on way he met her eyes, she wasn't sure that Steve knew that what he was telling wasn't as straight laces as he made it sound. 

_He doesn't want Tony involved in this?_

Sam nodded. He had taken over the hunt for James Barnes while Steve and Natasha handled the big Hydra picture with the Avengers – no questions asked.

“Alright,” Natasha said slowly and watched for a reaction from both men. “Let's not _worry_ Tony. Worrying is his thing after all.”

At least Sam quirked an eyebrow at her, just before Steve said: “You make it sound like a joke. But he worries a lot more than he lets on. And the procedure that will remove the arc reactor... It's in a few weeks.” Nobody talked about the fact that Tony had “died” over Christmas and had been working with Extremis ever since to make the removal of the arc reactor possible.

“Yes, of course,” Natasha said, feeling Steve's eyes inspecting her face and Sam watching both of them with a frown. 

She smiled. 

“Interesting,” Natasha said to Steve's retreating back when they broke up the meeting. She couldn't exactly say what had happened there, but if she would have to put a name to it, she would have said that Steve was _worried_ for Tony.

She watched closer then. 

Tony built them a big training room and Steve and Thor took to it as if they didn't get enough exercise in the field. Stark himself stayed clear of it, although Natasha knew he must be getting his own exercise regularly to be in the shape he was in. It didn't really make sense until she entered the kitchen one morning, found Thor boasting about a recent battle or training exercise, heard Steve laughing at whatever story that Thor was relating and in just that moment – when the laughter reached Steve's eyes - she noticed Tony, sitting behind them at the counter in jeans and a t-shirt, his hair askew as if he'd come straight from the lab to get his coffee up here with the rest of them.

The arc reactor shone through the thin fabric of his shirt and he was drinking his coffee out of a red mug with the Captain America shield on it. It had been a joke when he'd brought them the Avengers cups – or so Natasha had thought. Now she noticed more and more that the Cap mug was actually Tony's.

Tony watched Steve laugh and talk with a slightly befuddled look.

She couldn't help herself. The agent in her took a quick picture with her phone.

You wanted to have proof when you needed it.

“So,” Natasha later asked Steve with a smile. “How is the not-nurse, not-SHIELD agent these days? Asked her out?”

“Sharon?” Steve seemed surprised at the question. “Why?”

“Oh, no reason. I was wondering if I hadn't been trying to set you up with the wrong person all along.”

“For a while there you tried to set me up with any person, Nat.” He didn't seem to mind. He hadn't really minded then either, had simply taken it as another way of people reminding him of all the ways he had missed out on life.

“Not _any_ person, Steve. I didn't have anyone to guide me in these things when I broke out of the red room. But family is important. And we forge our own families and relationships. I want you to live a little.”

He quirked an eyebrow. “You want me to call Sharon to jump right into the...”

“No,” she said and laughed. “Don't call anyone. Everything you need is right here.” 

She took out her phone and showed him the picture she'd taken. “You look happy,” she said neutrally. “Joking with Thor.”

But she knew that Steve wasn't really the focus of the picture. It was Tony and the moment he caught Steve laughing, eyes wistful and maybe just a little caught off guard. That was a good look on him.

It seemed Steve agreed.

He took the phone from her hand, eyes glued to the screen. Then he stared, wide eyed. A blush formed on his cheeks.

“Oh,” he said and Natasha smiled. 

“Yes,” she said. “ _Oh._ Now figure it out.”

Steve handed her back the phone, flustered. Fidgeting wasn't usually something you saw Captain America do, but apparently he had no idea what to say to her now. It was hilarious.

“Go?” she suggested.

“Yes, okay,” he agreed immediately and got to his feet, ready to flee the scene.

At least it seemed one of two men knew he needed to stop pining.

“He's in the second level lab by the way,” she shouted after him and Steve nearly cringed, but nodded and muttered, “thanks,” before running off.

Hopefully her work here was done for today.

**Author's Note:**

> You can follow me for fic updates on [tumblr](https://navaanwrites.tumblr.com/) and [twitter](https://twitter.com/navaanwrites). This fic has a post on the tumblr [here](https://navaanwrites.tumblr.com/post/171993152754/the-look-navaan-the-avengers-marvel-movies) in case you want to share it.


End file.
